A Spy in the Camp

Last week, together with Robert Deutz, I attended the European leg of DrupalCon in Munich Germany. Although I had been invited to speak at the conference I was also interested to observe the Drupal Community and how they run their events. After receiving my invitation to speak there were a few hurdles to clear and I am grateful to OpenSourceMatters for supporting me in "Spreading the Joomla Love" and helping me to share our own unique experiences.

Amazee Labs

Attending the event was a strange experience for me. When I go to a Joomla event everyone knows me, or at least has heard of me. But at DrupalCon, I was just the poor fool who was wearing a Joomla t-shirt.

I didn't attend too many of the developer sessions as to be honest, they would be over my head and not really of interest to me – heck I don't even go to developer sessions at Joomla events. But I did attend several of the community sessions.

It was interesting to observe that both projects share some of the same issues although our efforts to resolve those issues are diametrically opposed. The DrupalLadder project was particularly interesting in the methodology being used to attempt to increase the number of "core contributors". That was definitely an initiative that Joomla could learn from and adapt.

The social side of DrupalCon was certainly surprising to me. The main "party" was just an invitation to grab one of 7000 seats in the English Garden beer garden and buy your own beer and food. It certainly wasn't like anything I have ever experienced in the Joomla world and as a newbie who only really knew Robert it wasn't a very welcoming or inclusive event.

My presentation "Joomla! - Hippies, Pirates, Revolutionaries or a Distributed Community" was on the second day and while the attendance was good I was disappointed that few if any of the Drupal community leaders were present. Despite that, the presentation went well, I was able to recycle all my old jokes and judging by the responses during the Question & Answers, my main points had been well received.

I concluded my presentation with an invitation for anyone in the Drupal community to come to our first Joomla World Conference in November, and I hope many will join us and experience the truly amazing welcoming and inclusive community that Joomla is.